When I first considered what I wanted to sew for this week's challenge, I only thought of the patterns and outfits that I was less than happy with the results. I was pretty much certain I was going to revisit the skirt and top combo from our 1970s week. Bad fabric choices are pretty easy to undo the second time around: this time I would choose a heavier skirt fabric and a less matronly print for the top.

But then when it came to find the patterns, I could not find the top. That was the bad news. The good news is that it forced me to somewhat clean my sewing room. I am happy to say that I can now (pretty much) walk in the room without climbing over any boxes, pieces of fabric or pincushions. It's still a mess, though.

So instead of revisiting the bad and hope to make it good, I decided to revisit the good and hope to make it great. Simplicity 1926 was used all the way back in January for the second challenge — the "Unrequited Love in Film" theme. I absolutely loved (and still love) that dress and would have to say that it is one of the top five pieces I've made this year that remains in heavy wearing rotation. In the past two weeks alone, I've worn it twice and that's with winter coming up fast and furious.

Even though the dress is highly wearable, there are a couple of changes that I wanted to make for the latest version. For one, it's just a little too long. Though I like the look of the three-tiered skirt, I decided that I could do without the middle tier. That would bring the dress to my knee — a far more modern take on the dress.

I also chose to make the neckline ruffle a bit narrower. It always feels a bit too costumey when I'm trying to get everyday wear use out of it. Both complaints (dress length and costumey bib) would make it seem that I don't like the dress. It just goes to show how much I do like the dress! Even though these two elements bother me a bit, I still want to wear the thing all of the time. Maybe it has to do with its awesome yellow color.

But back to this week's creation.

Let's just take a moment to appreciate how awesome this "dogs wearing boas" fabric truly is. Yes, dogs in boas. I could start and end this post with just the following image and be completely satisfied.

This fabulous fabric came from the Novato Estate sale, part II. Based on the narrow selvage and print method, I believe that this was one of the oldest pieces of the lot. Even though I thought it was cute at the time, I didn't know if I'd ever use it (that's how it always goes!).

I found those little belt fasteners in my stash of vintage notions. They are SO AWESOME. You sew them on just like buttons and then they connect in the middle. I wish I had more of them!

Those belt fasteners are amazing – are they a purely vintage thing, or do people still make them??
And I love your re-do of the dress – hopefully this one makes it in to regular rotation with the yellow dress!

Mena, this dress is so fab that you’ve just made me completely change my mind about the dress I was going to cut out tomorrow! I made a purple dress a while back inspired by your yellow one.. and just like you, I loved it.. but it seemed a little costumey – ruffle too big, skirt a bit long. Watch out.. I may be copying you again!

I have this pattern and I never make it, and I don’t know why because your versions are just so awesome! I did find a 70s pattern in my stash that is remarkably similar to your edited version. Maybe I’ll make that!

My sewing room would still be a a metre high full of overlocked offcuts and tissue patterns if I hadn’t have moved house!
LOVE this fabric, and those little clasps are so gorgeous on your belt! A perfect outfit! xoxo

About the Sew Weekly

The Sew Weekly began as Mena Trott's attempt to document the process of sewing all of her own clothes in 2010. In 2011, four other contributors (Debi Fry, Adey Lim, Veronica Darling & Sarah Gabbart) joined her and for 52 weeks, they sewed based on a particular weekly theme. In 2012, The Sew Weekly became a much larger group blog with over 130 contributors sewing along each week.